Sep 30, 2014

A turn-based strategy title designed to be very challenging, Natural Doctrine sends players into mines to acquire the valuable resource Pluton and gain access to Feste, the last human city in the world. Pluton is magical, finite, and toxic to humans, but goblins can refine it into a safer form, which leads to frequent attacks from explorers known as Bergmans. Gamers take control of several of these Bergmans, using close-quarters combat, ranged attacks, magic, and firearms to battle goblins, orcs, lizardfolk, minotaurs, wyverns, dragons, and continually evolving monsters known as gorians.

Players can examine the battlefields from third-person, top-down, and isometric viewpoints, and instead of grids, each map is divided into larger geometric areas, with blue lines marking off attack zones, and red lines delineating enemy territory. Characters can travel freely through these areas, with objects, destructible areas, and differences in elevation sometimes offering a competitive advantage, and multiple characters can occupy the same area to perform powerful Link Turn combo attacks. Gamers must use extreme caution at all times because the total amount of Pluton available in the game is fixed, and if any member of the party dies in battle, the game is over.

Solo gamers can take on Story Missions to advance the plot, or try Free Missions to gain more experience and equipment, heading to the World Map in between battles to change the formation of their group, outfit their allies, develop new skills, and save their game. Natural Doctrine also offers cross-platform online multiplayer action for PS3, PS4, and Vita, and Ad-hoc multiplayer for Vita users. Multiplayer battles unfold in the same way as single-player battles, but gamers form their party by collecting cards and building a custom deck, and then using Card Points they accrue to improve their characters or buy better cards.